Description:
Partner violence is a devastating experience that impacts most aspects of survivors’ lives including their health, careers, and relationships. In working to secure and sustain a safe and violence-free life, survivors of partner violence must manage multiple challenges and concerns. For survivors who are parents, the well-being of their children is central. Given the effects of chronic partner violence on a survivor’s stress management skills, sense of self-worth, and feelings of self-confidence, the challenges of parenting extend beyond issues of physical safety. Thus, fundamental to clinical practice with survivors who have children is helping them cultivate effective parenting strategies. In this workshop, Rebecca Macy draws from her cutting-edge research to illuminate the experience of adult survivors and their children, and share findings about positive parenting strategies. Much of the workshop will be presented in the words of survivors and the approaches that they have found most helpful.
Trainer:
Rebecca J. Macy, PhD, ACSW, LCSW is an associate professor at the UNC School of Social Work, with practice experience in community mental health where she worked with violence survivors. Dr. Macy teaches courses in social work practice, family violence, mental health, and statistics, and has won teaching awards, including the Dean’s Recognition of Teaching Excellence, Outstanding Professor, and Most Supportive Professor. She is a Carolina Center for Public Service Faculty Engaged Scholar, and publishes and presents widely on issues around intimate partner and sexual violence, including on the health consequences, cognitive-behavioral therapy interventions, repeated victimizations across the life span, and community-based preventions and interventions to promote resilience and wellbeing. She recently completed an evaluation of the Hope for Children program for children who have been exposed to intimate partner violence, and is currently evaluating the Mothers Overcoming Violence through Education and Empowerment (MOVE) program, a project initiated by Interact and SAFEchild in Raleigh.
Resources:
Clinical Lecture Series at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work